


Apples & Bears

by Birch Banterous (King_Eska)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Genjutsu, Internal Monologue, Love Confessions, Patricide, Pressure of leadership, Screaming, Trauma, hidden villages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:53:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28123401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/King_Eska/pseuds/Birch%20Banterous
Summary: The ramblings and internal monologuing of clan-killers, knuckleheads, grandsons, and ninja mayors.
Kudos: 2





	Apples & Bears

Apples are a red fruit grown in trees. Uchiha Itachi's eyes are a red organ borne of despair. His eyes bore through your eyes like the windows to the soul that they are. He does this with ease; it takes very little effort on his part. The orbiting commas on his irises foreshadow the spiraling path your life might follow after he meddles around in your head. The pain he could force upon you is comparable to the pain his father and his father's occupation forced upon him when he was but a child. To be enticed to kill by your own flesh and blood was a feeling Itachi could not get out of his soul even years after the fact and even after killing every single member of his family he could bear or hope to lay his blade into. 

Bears are a larger-than-life furred creature of the forest. Uzumaki Naruto has a larger-than-life voice and runs alongside his comrades in the forest faster than the eye can follow. In the cold of the Land of Iron as Naruto fell to his knees in earnest plea toward the hulking, blond muscle-head warlord that is the Raikage of the Village Hidden in the Clouds, his breath fogged the air as might a bear who is roaring out a warning to those that think the should be so close to her cubs. As might his own breath fog out when he likewise roared for all the pain in his heart as it collapsed in his chest as dear Sakura-chan lied to his face. It was too much. Love him? How could she say that? She hated him: She always hit him if he so much as looked at her wrong, much less say something she disagreed with; like the time he and Sai went out to eat and she got upset that she wasn't invited, even though she had earlier that day punched Sai's head in because he had told her the truth but lied to Ino in his endeavor to not get hit by a righteous kunoichi in defense of her "honor" and "beauty." Uzumaki's heart stopped then and there, for the stress in his heart could not take any more pressure, especially from his closest friend Sakura-chan, who he thought he loved, was going to marry, was going to lead the Village Hidden in the Leaves with as Hokage-sama and Hokage-hime -- for Sakura-chan in his eyes had indeed been a princess, a righteous and strong princess warrior who took no shit and dealt out her fair and equal share of hope and pain; the greatest medical kunoichi to have ever lived, after Tsunade-baa-chan, of course. 

Sarutobi Konohamaru carried upon his shoulders and within his heart the fires of torches lit by many honorable and just men and women. First was his uncle Asuma ashwood torch whose flame spat massive amounts of smoke, as his owner did: This smoke was a smokescreen, to protect him from the unwanted stares of elders and youth alike who expected too much of the Honorable Grandson of the God of Shinobi Sandaime Hokage-sama, to protect also his heart from the abysmally dark truth of the staple-job of the Shinobi's career: Death follows all who walk in the shadow; fire follows the match as it scrapes against the matchbox, as does death proceed a ninja in his or her line of work because some thug hired a mercenary because the thug had been out-thugged by a bigger, badder thuggier thug who had taken what he wanted and ran as fast as he could and tried and got away with it. 

Second was the aforementioned God: Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had emburdened himself once again with the heavy mantle of Hokage-sama and all that followed. Sure, what one gets with the Hat and Cloak is an entourage of ANBU and honor and glory as leader and savior of the great Hidden Village of the bountiful Land of Fire. But with the posse of elite Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai is what those porcelain-masked shadows are protecting you from: Assassination, pressure, scheming, pressure, pain, pressire, pressure and pressure. A lot of pressure. So much. 

With the flocking of admiring pedestrian civilians, merchants, laborers, crafters, and shinobi alike is the crushing inevitability of failure that lingers in Hiruzen-sama's mind, just waiting for him to let his guard down. Not to mention Shimura Danzo, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Ohnoki, Ay, Akatsuki, Ame, Kiri, Suna, Madara and a dozen other factions and hundreds of other individuals who were waiting for Sarutobi to slip up so they could bring the wrath of god down on Hiruzen's fragile little world.


End file.
